Vincent van Gogh’s Famous Bed May Still Exist in a Small Dutch Town

A British art historian says the bed featured in Vincent van Gogh’s famous 1888 painting The Bedroom may still exist in the southern Dutch town of Boxmeer.

Martin Bailey says he has been told by Johan van Gogh, a 94-year-old descendent of the artist, that that bed stood in a house belonging to his father, the painter’s cousin Vincent Willem, until the end of the Second World War. AFP reports that it was then shipped from the family home in Laren — a small town in north Holland — to Boxmeer, 120 km away, as a donation to Dutch refugees who had lost their possessions in the war.

Bailey told Dutch broadcaster NOS that he had located a photograph of the truck used to transport the donations from Laren to Boxmeer.

“That was the last bit of the puzzle,” Bailey said, in an interview cited by AFP. “There is no question that the bed ended up in Boxmeer.”

Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum told NOS that it was following Bailey’s investigations closely.

There are three versions of The Bedroom — the earliest on display in Amsterdam, and two others, both from 1889, on display in Paris and Chicago.

[AFP]